Can DCA experience help me make it in DCI?

[TomMoore]

FYI - there are no more "SR" corps unless you are referring to "alumni" corps. And even in some cases you will find several young members there too. The moniker "Sr" was removed from DCA several years ago. It is now "All-Aged". The numbers of young members in DCA have increased suffuciently to the point that the average age in most of your top 5 corps are now in the teens and early twenties. The Caballeros 2008 corps average age was between 14 and 21 with a few of us old guys as a good anchor. I would imagine Bucs were in that same category.

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I would imagine any one of the top DCA corps can support the same claim.

Agreed. I don't have the statistics but the 2008 Bucs had a good mix of the 15-21 group and those older. If you exclude the young, nimble Walt Street who in his 50s marched in the baritone line, there are still a good number of 'old guys as anchors,' as you say, Josh. I agree that this is probably true for most of our DCA counterparts.

Regardless of the numbers, it's a tremendous source of pride when members who have cut their teeth and grown in the Buccaneers program go on to successfully audition with DCI and pursue their dreams and march there. I'm sure that same pride resides in Hawthorne, Rochester and in every DCA corps whose alumni represent them so well in DCI's ranks.

Edited October 18, 2008 by TomMoore

[scv guy]

I must have things wrong then. I always thought that DCA is where you go after you age out.

I had not thought about the money issue either. DCI was affordable to all kids back in the day. Now? You have to pay so much for the experience.

[Cathie Wiener]

But it is a much more active experiance than DCA. Unless of course you're in the pitt. LOL

If only this were true for when I marched. Blue Knights pit in 96 still had concert instruments with teeny tiny wheels with many of the boards held together by Bungee Cords. Pit members from other corps would see us, ONCE AGAIN trying to put an instrument back together and joke and say BK stood for Bungee Kings. We actually had an original pit song titled, "If I Were a Wingnut, Where Would I Be?" We sang that song quite often. Plus, we had to take the keys off of every keyboard every time we loaded them in the truck including packing all the strings of keys individually and then putting the keys back on every time we unloaded. Talk about tons of time and LOTS of hard work. We also used to cringe with envy when we saw some of the corps that had large, maneuverable "field" wheels on their boards. We were so jealous. And then trying to transport our rack... I'm still scarred from that thing. And this was just all the extra stuff we did aside from learning and practicing our show.

However, being in the pit in SoCal Dream wasn't all that easy either. We had a small number of people in the pit with quite a bit of equipment that had to be moved all the time. Plus the stress of being the last section to get your music with MUCH less time to rehearse it especially with the ensemble was pretty hard work. It was all completely worth it though. Lots of fun!!!

As for the OP's original question, DCA should help when going to DCI. But like other people have said, if at all possible go ahead and march DCI. If that's not an option due to money or time off work, etc., DCA's a great place to improve your skills until you can get to DCI to march... then come back to DCA for more crazy fun.